Chapter 4 - THE SHADOW IN THE DOORWAY
I shoved Vanessa away, clutching the train ticket against my chest.
“Are you out of your mind?” I hissed, keeping my voice low so I wouldn’t wake Ruth. “I’m not burning evidence! I’m giving this straight to Luca!”
Vanessa fell to her knees, the heavy satin of her gown pooling around her. She looked pathetic, completely stripped of her high-society armor.
“Claire, please,” she begged, sobbing. “You don’t understand the men you’re dealing with. My father and Marcus… they are monsters. They’ve been planning this for years. They used me to get close to Luca. They needed the wedding to secure the waterfront territory, but Ruth’s legal adoption blocked their legal loophole.”
“Then why threaten her? Why not just ask Luca for the territory?” I demanded.
Vanessa wiped her face, smearing her mascara. “Because Marcus stole the territory from Luca’s biological family in 1997. If Luca legally reverts to his birth name, my father’s lawyers have forged documents ready to seize everything. But if Luca stays a 'Moretti' under Ruth’s adoption, the trap fails.”
My stomach churned. The greed. The absolute sickness of it all.
“I’m calling security,” I said, turning toward the bedroom phone.
Vanessa scrambled up and grabbed the phone cord. “If you tell Luca I’m here, my father will know I talked. He’ll hurt my mother, Claire. Please. Just let me leave quietly. But take Ruth and run. They have people inside this house.”
Before I could process her warning, a heavy knock pounded on the bedroom door.
Vanessa gasped and dove into the large walk-in closet, pulling the louvered doors shut just as the bedroom door handle rattled.
“Claire? Open the door.”
It was Luca’s voice.
I quickly folded the train ticket, shoved it deep into my apron pocket, and unlocked the door.
Luca walked in. His face was grim, a stark contrast to his tailored suit. Behind him stood Paulie, his second-in-command. Paulie was a massive man with a thick neck and a permanent scowl. He had been with Luca for fifteen years.
“Is she awake?” Luca asked, looking at Ruth’s sleeping form.
“No, sir. She’s resting deeply,” I said, my heart hammering against my ribs. I knew Vanessa was terrified in the closet just ten feet away.
“Good,” Luca said. He turned to Paulie. “Lock down the perimeter. Nobody gets in or out of the gates. Double the guards on this hallway. I want two men stationed outside this door until morning.”
Paulie nodded slowly. But his eyes darted around the room, lingering on the open closet door for a fraction of a second.
“Boss, with respect,” Paulie grunted. “Maybe keeping the old lady here is a bad move. If the Bellinis are making a play, she’s a target. We should move her to the safehouse in Wisconsin.”
Luca shook his head. “I’m not putting a 72-year-old woman with a weak heart in the back of an SUV in the middle of the night. She stays here. Where I can see her.”
“Suit yourself,” Paulie said, though his jaw tightened. “I’ll get the men in position.”
As Paulie turned to leave, I noticed something strange. There was a smear of dark grease on the cuff of Paulie’s immaculate white dress shirt. It looked exactly like the grease used on the heavy iron hinges of the mansion’s security gates.
Paulie walked out, closing the door behind him.
Luca rubbed his temples, looking exhausted. “I just got off the phone with my contacts at City Hall. Marcus didn’t just threaten Ruth with zoning laws. He bribed a judge to unseal her original adoption filing tomorrow morning.”
I felt the train ticket burning a hole in my pocket.
“Mr. Moretti… there’s something you need to see.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the yellowed paper. “I was cleaning the lunchbox. It has a false bottom. I found this inside.”
Luca frowned. He took the ticket from my hands and unfolded it.
I watched his eyes scan the red ink. I watched his brain process the date. October 14, 1997.
Then, I watched him see the passenger count.
Three passengers.
Luca’s breath hitched. He stared at the ticket for a long, agonizing minute.
“My mother didn’t have a husband,” Luca whispered. “She didn’t have a boyfriend. It was just the two of us. We were supposed to go to Canada to escape the neighborhood gangs. There was no third person.”
“Are you sure?” I asked gently.
Luca closed his eyes. “I was nine, Claire. I remember packing my favorite comic books. I remember her holding my hand. But… wait.”
His eyes snapped open. A memory, long buried, was clawing its way to the surface.
“The night she died,” Luca said, his voice trembling. “She told me to wait behind the dumpster. She said she had to meet someone to get the rest of our travel money. Someone she trusted.”
He looked down at Ruth, asleep on the bed.
“She trusted Ruth.”
The realization hit the room like a physical blow.
Before Luca could say another word, a deafening alarm shattered the silence. The mansion’s security system was screaming, flashing red emergency lights through the hallway.
Luca instantly pulled a sleek black handgun from his shoulder holster.
“Stay down!” he barked at me.
He threw open the bedroom door.
The two guards Paulie was supposed to station outside were not there. The hallway was completely empty.
Luca’s radio crackled on his belt. It was Paulie’s voice, but it didn’t sound panicked. It sounded perfectly calm.
“Sorry, Boss. But the old woman is bad for business.”
Luca’s face contorted in rage. “Paulie! Call off the men!”
“Can’t do that, Luca,” Paulie’s voice echoed through the static. “Marcus Thorne made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I’m coming up the stairs. Put the gun down, or I’ll burn the house to the ground.”
Luca slammed the bedroom door shut and locked the deadbolt. He dragged a heavy oak dresser in front of it.
I rushed to the bed, shaking Ruth. “Mrs. Ellis! Wake up! We have to move!”
Ruth groaned, her eyes fluttering open. “What… what’s that noise?”
The closet door squeaked open. Vanessa crawled out, weeping hysterically.
Luca spun around, aiming his gun at her. “What the hell are you doing in here?”
Vanessa held up her hands. “I warned her! I told Claire they were inside the house! Paulie sold you out, Luca!”
Footsteps pounded heavily on the hardwood floor outside the door.
Someone hammered on the wood.
“Luca!” Paulie shouted from the hallway. “Open the door! Give us the old lady and the lunchbox, and I’ll let you walk away!”
Luca stood in front of the bed, shielding Ruth and me with his body.
“You’re going to have to kill me first, Paulie.”
A slip of white paper slid slowly under the bottom of the bedroom door.
“I don’t want to kill you, kid,” Paulie yelled through the wood. “But you need to look at what she’s been hiding from you.”
Luca kept his gun aimed at the door. “Claire. Get the paper.”
I crawled across the carpet, grabbed the slip, and brought it back.
It was a photocopy of an old, handwritten police report from 1997.
At the bottom, it listed the primary suspect in the murder of Elena Moretti.
May you like
The name on the line was Ruth Ellis.
TITLE: THE WOMAN IN THE ALLEY
